Justice Department releases Carter Page surveillance documents

New documents related to the wiretapping of Carter Page — the former Trump campaign adviser at the center of the Russia investigation and bias allegations at the FBI — were released by the Trump administration on Saturday.

Page served as a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign before he came under scrutiny for a trip to Moscow, where he interacted with a senior Russian government official.

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A redacted version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court wiretap application — which had previously been classified — and several renewals were released after requests by the news media.

“The F.B.I. believes Page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the Russian government,” the document states, to “undermine and influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election in violation of U.S. criminal law.”

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Page has repeatedly denied being a Russian agent.

Although the essential contents of the heavily redacted documents were mostly known to the public — via Intelligence Committee memos released by Democrats and Republicans — their release follows sustained attacks against the probe into Russian election meddling by the president and his allies.

Republican allies of the president have long said the wiretaps of Page were tainted because they relied on the infamous dossier by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, but the newly disclosed documents suggest the FBI did not lean heavily on claims drawn from the dossier.